Electronic Musical Toys of the 60's and 70's

Here's a great collection of electronic musical toys from 1954 to the late 80's, including the Shaun Cassidy Electronic Organ, the Bee Gees Rhythm Machine and Mattel's Magical Musical Thing. For a more grownup version of the same thing, visit the Synthmuseum, where you can find the old WFMU favorite, the Optigan.

Taking toys like this and hacking away at their innards is now known as circuit bending, and there's no circuit bender quite like the Norweigan musical outsider Tore Honoré Bøe, who is also the king of aliases. His homemade musical laptops are things of beauty, and also earned him a place on tour with Einsturzende Neubauten. Thanks, listener Bas!

Comments

[Ed Word]

Being in the circuit bending business myself, I would kill for some of those 60's and 70's toys may not kill, but maim severely and if any of you guys have old crappy broken noisemakeing things you dont want, find me.

and check these cats out
http://www.circuit-bent.com/home.htm

[toy music boxes]

Boy that brings back memories!